Love Bites

Her heart tumbled as images flew through her mind. The two of them touching other women as they’d touched her. Making love to them, sharing them, drinking from their throats as they’d drunk from her.

Lucas had mentioned their freaky vampire orgies. Maybe he hadn’t been kidding. After all, they’d picked her up on the side of the road, hadn’t they? Even if she’d known Kellan, sort of, their behavior—and hers, she realized, heat staining her cheeks—didn’t bode well for their sexual responsibility.

God, what had she done? Multiple times?

She took a step back. She knew nothing about these men, but here she was having unprotected sex with them. They’d said they didn’t need to use condoms, but she was still human. Maybe they could carry diseases, even if those diseases didn’t affect them. Who knew how many lovers they’d had? Many could be a thousand or ten times that. Hell, maybe they even screwed each other, though the vibe she’d picked up from them suggested otherwise.

“Do you have company over a lot?”

“Only when necessary.” Kellan bent to pick up his jeans. To her shock, he was almost as hard as he’d been before they’d had sex. “We have needs, sweetheart. We can’t deny them even if we try.”

“But you don’t try.”

“No.” Lucas looked at her steadily when Kellan didn’t answer. “He doesn’t. He had no reason to, because he was still looking for his mate. The only way to find her is to search. That’s how he found you.”

Sydney shivered as the butterflies in her chest divebombed into her belly. As much as she liked them—and she was beginning to wonder if her feelings for Kellan already went beyond like—she wasn’t sure if she was ready to be anyone’s “mate.” Especially not a horny vampire’s. Sure, the last day had been exciting, but could she really keep up this pace long-term? She had a job. Two, actually, if she counted her mystical duties, but only the coffee shop had set hours. Still, any kind of job would interfere with what these two seemed to require.

“You’ve found yours,” she said to Lucas, sidestepping his comment about Kellan.

His features tautened. “Yes.”

“But you haven’t slept with her?”

“No. She doesn’t want me. So when I can hold out no longer, I do what I must. The urge for sex is nearly as strong as the thirst for blood.”

“I’ve noticed,” she said dryly, lifting her brows at the two unflagging erections in front of her. At least Kellan had put on his jeans, but Luke stood happily nude. “You’ve said you don’t use condoms, so vampires must not be able to get sexually transmitted diseases? And I’ve gathered you can’t impregnate me.”

When they remained silent, staring at each other without meeting her gaze, she tried again. “Right?”

“No.” Lucas glanced at her briefly before returning his attention to Kellan. “Unless you truly are latent. Normally vamps can’t impregnate humans or vamps, because our semen is incompatible with human eggs and the eggs of female vamps die upon the change. But if you’re latent, the changeover wouldn’t require drinking you to the brink of death, as it normally does when making a vampire. Your heart would still beat at the rate of a human’s, yet you’d be one of us, for all intents and purposes. As soon as vampire blood was introduced into your bloodstream at a sufficient rate, the change would begin. Eventually, all reproductive activity would cease, including things like menstrual cycles. But for a brief time, until your eggs died, technically you’d be both human and vamp and possibly susceptible to the conditions of either group.”

The words hit her fuzzy brain in a rushed, nonsensical jumble. She wasn’t a latent. She couldn’t be, even though she didn’t know what that really meant.

So why was she so afraid?

It was just this situation. Who wouldn’t be fearful after a night like she’d had? She’d had two threesomes with two guys who were convinced they were vampires, and hell, they’d even mostly convinced her. But that didn’t mean she was like them.

No, she, Sydney Louise Langdon, was normal. Maybe she was overly horny, with questionable decision-making skills, but she wasn’t any kind of vampire, and therefore, certainly couldn’t be pregnant with a vampire’s baby if her birth control had somehow failed.

If that was even what Luke had tried to suggest. She wasn’t sure.

Then the taunts at the back of her mind overtook her momentary calm. So why did you want to bite Kellan? And why do you want him to bite you again? That’s hardly normal human behavior.

Kellan’s roar swiftly cut through her fog.

“What? You’re telling me she could be pregnant? That you could have impregnated her just now?” He gripped Luke’s shoulders, shaking him hard enough to pop the fillings out of his teeth, had he had any. “Goddamn you, how could you?”

“I pulled out. You saw that for yourself. She also said last night that she was on the Pill. Besides, even if she were to get pregnant, there’s no reason to think she could carry the baby to term. Vampire blood would likely kill any part-human child, which explains why there are no known cases of a vampire birth that we could find.”

“You knew the possibility existed and said nothing? You know how unreliable the rhythm method is, you bastard. And birth control is no guarantee.” Kellan seethed with fury. “One sperm. That’s all it takes.”

Her ears buzzed, her vision blurred. Suddenly, she was so cold, as if the heat of her body had simply drained out of the soles of her feet, leaving her frozen in place.

I could be pregnant. And I wouldn’t even know who the father is.

It was the last thought she had before she surrendered to the black.

Chapter Six